An idea for obtaining houses.

[Claviusnex]

Lotteries and auctions won't fix the underlying problem of the ward housing system itself. Not to mention SE has provided a way to obtain a house by moving to a lower population server. Housing is not and will never be capable of supporting a large number of players without taking excessive server resources. Server resources are also why the number of outside items will always be smaller than optimal. Due to housing's design if SE were to add enough wards for the high population servers we would have even more wasted open houses on the medium and small population servers. The only true fix is to make a fully instanced housing system that includes the yard in the instance. This would allow for dynamic management of server resources as people entered and left their houses, eliminate the artificial ownership cap imposed by the ward system, allow for more items outside and possibly inside, allow for an upgrade path to larger/smaller dwellings for all players and enhance many other areas of the current system. Nothing says they have to get rid of wards and could still allow players to use them if they are willing to live with the restrictions. I know its expecting a lot but if SE could build a decent instanced system I would leave my ward house for the enhanced quality of life.

[DeaconMoore]

You're getting overly dramatic when you say things like "SE has done morally repugnant things to the housing in this game".

Let's run down what SE has done since housing was first introduced:

They added instanced housing in the form of FC rooms so players could have their own personal space to decorate.

They allowed individual players to start purchasing houses instead of continuing to restrict them to FCs.

They decreased the purchase price of houses.

They've continued to add new housing items for players to use in decorating their housing.

They expanded the instanced housing with the creation of apartment buildings.

They doubled the item placement limit in housing.

They added a new housing district.

They added a relocation feature.

They increased the number of wards in each housing district by 50%.

They added a purchase timer to in an attempt to help deter house resales.

I'm sure there are a few other changes they've made to housing as it was originally implemented that I can't recall off the top of my head.

Yet you find all of these changes they've made to the original housing implementation to be morally repugnant?

I guess SE should just revert housing back to what it was in 2.1 since that was evidently a better situation in your eyes.

Who said it wasn't morally repugnant to begin with? Look at everything you've listed there and think about it.

Housing was made into PvP since the start and it hasn't stopped being so since. Yes, some of those changes have made it so more can participate but we're still fighting for plots when their shouldn't have ever been a fight to begin with.

[Pastahnak]

Housing = PvP......... LOLOLOL

[Arrius]

The only true fix is to make a fully instanced housing system that includes the yard in the instance. This would allow for dynamic management of server resources as people entered and left their houses, eliminate the artificial ownership cap imposed by the ward system, allow for more items outside and possibly inside, allow for an upgrade path to larger/smaller dwellings for all players and enhance many other areas of the current system. Nothing says they have to get rid of wards and could still allow players to use them if they are willing to live with the restrictions. I know its expecting a lot but if SE could build a decent instanced system I would leave my ward house for the enhanced quality of life.

Instanced Housing would only divide the community further, as every person would move to it and leave the wards empty, making them a lonely place to be. There are reasons why people tend to make towns and cities in survival games like minecraft and some others, as they give the feeling and immersion of the place being alive and active.

[illgot]

How about this...

Instead of spending time spamming purchase on an empty plot competing against other players who are doing the same, why not... do a literal LOTTERY? As in, if a player wants to buy the house, he'll register himself and be put on a random real lottery, to which if he'd be the winner, he'd get the house?

I managed to get an FC house myself yesterday, but it was absolute hell.

Making it so that it's an actual lottery will save players from pain.

or how about just scrap the whole idea of "apartments" and turn the apartments into house sized "apartments" of the players choice? The current system of housing is a complete mess.

[Claviusnex]

Instanced Housing would only divide the community further, as every person would move to it and leave the wards empty, making them a lonely place to be. There are reasons why people tend to make towns and cities in survival games like minecraft and some others, as they give the feeling and immersion of the place being alive and active.

The wards on most servers are dead. I've seen one or two players in the years of being in my ward. They were walking to or from the MB and when I waved got no response. An instanced system on the other hand with a thought out common area would be more alive. Think of the market areas of the capital cities as an example or maybe even the entrance location.

[zztoluca]

Current system works. If you want a house camp for it or fork over more gil and buy a goblet to relocate.

The system rewards those with interest in a house. Those only in it to flip will lose patients quickly.

[Sorvenus]

I brought this idea up a few times here and there, but why not have more mobile houses like an airship, or sea vessel make them a smaller space in terms or items placed, but make them mobile to travel to places with ports and landings. This way people could have a place that isn't limited to housing plots. The people who want a house could have something like this until a plot is available.

[Enla]

The wards on most servers are dead. I've seen one or two players in the years of being in my ward. They were walking to or from the MB and when I waved got no response. An instanced system on the other hand with a thought out common area would be more alive. Think of the market areas of the capital cities as an example or maybe even the entrance location.

I was going to say even on Balmung most of our wards are absolutely dead beyond the rare RP event and maybe one or two larger guilds that have people standing around their own marketboards. It's not going to change much of anything to move the existing infrastructure into an instanced based system. The only way I could see that happening is if they implement bases like SWTOR which basically negated /ANY/ need to go to Fleet if you ponied up the cash to do everything in your base instead. Going back to RP there after they implemented housing was a big trip for that reason, and is part of the reason I came back here, but so long as they force you to go to a common area built for the new instanced houses or the main towns for the market board and a few other things I don't see it being an issue.

[Awha]

Before The Unending Coil of Bahamut (Ultimate), there was housing the true Ultimate tier content.